Sony Is Reportedly Prepping Another “Thinner” PlayStation 4 Model

Sony Is Reportedly Prepping Another “Thinner” PlayStation 4 Model

Within the past year Sony has released two new versions of their latest hardware – the sleek, low-cost PlayStation 4 Slim, and the beefed up PlayStation 4 Pro. Well, if a new report is to be believed, yet another new model may be about to join the ever-growing PS4 family.

Taiwanese newspaper Digitimes reports that Sony is currently prepping a “thinner” version of the PS4. A large portion of the world's electronics are manufactured in Taiwan, so its entirely likely Digitimes has an inside scoop. In the same article the newspaper delves into which companies are working on Microsoft's Project Scorpio, and mentions that Nintendo expects to ship 20 million Switch units this year.

Ultimately though, it's the revelation that yet another version of the PS4 is on the way that proves most interesting. Digitimes doesn't specify whether this thinner PS4 will be an even more streamlined version of the base PS4, or a pared-down version of the PS4 Pro. The latter seems more likely to be true. The PS4 Pro's “triple-decker” design is a bit clunky, and it would make sense for Sony to take it to Project Scorpio with a redesign and price cut for the Pro.

Another new PS4 model this soon may seem like too much, too fast, but Sony's revisions don't seem to be hurting the brand. Following last year's PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro double launch, Sony had their most lucrative quarter in PlayStation history. So, expect frequent tweaks and updates going forward.

Between the full reveal of Project Scorpio, a deeper look at what the Nintendo Switch is capable of, and the possible unveiling for a new PS4 model, it's going to be another busy E3 this year! Expect to hear more about all the new machines when the show kicks off on June 10.

http://wwg.com/2017/03/26/sony-making-another-thinner-playstation-4-model/

original source: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170324PD208.html

Sony, this time, include an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, or don't bother!

ps4 pro slim sony is on a roll microsoft said people dont make new systems this much maybe its just them who doesn't make a bunch

keep with competition xbox or die out

This is from the same guys who swore up and down the 'NX will launch in 2016,' and that it uses an AMD chipset equivalent to the PS4 Neo.

I wouldn't put any stock into their word.

I'm ready to upgrade to a PS4 Pro, but I'm waiting until they announce a revision in design, as the current models of all PS4s look freakishly ugly. I'm hoping they dropped that sloped angled look, and I hope they realize that having a bigger fan actually makes less noise because it dissipates heat with a slow spin, smaller fans just sound like hair-dryers to equal the same amount of air displacement. I also want to see if they add the 4K UHD Blu-ray player in future models, and a bigger HDD. Yeah, ready to splurge on the upgrade, but I need to see a meaningful revision I can get behind.

I guess we'll see if this pans out. Kinda pointless to make up a rumor about a thinner PS4. It's not anything earth shattering.

I feel like it'll be later down the line. Like released almost 2 years from PS4 Pro release.

Even a PS4 OG chip revision in a very thin set top box form factor with no large HDD and BRD won't surprise me.

Makes sense to make a tinnier revision of the PS4 Pro.

I agree -- with UHD Blu-ray.

Not aware of any die shrinks in the works. Some new silicon to make PS4 Pro slim?

I'll stick to my goody good launch PS4 thank you very much :)

A slim PS4 accompanied with a price for both the PS4 and Pro would make a lot of sense.

If they just make a slim Pro whatever. If they make an improved Pro after I just bought one I'm gonna flip out and sell my Pro.

Getting into a hardware pissing match isn't good for anyone. I like have cutting edge hardware, but I am not buying new hardware every year.

But yeah, rumors from an unreliable news source isn't exactly evidence of anything.

PS4 Pro sounds like combat jet when playing Pro enhanced games, so waiting for a revision is the best thing you could do.

I wouldn't wait for them to add a 4k player tho. Movie streaming has taken over big time and there is no going back. Sony won't lower their profit to add something that nobody will use, and even less when even as it is their console is still selling pretty well. This is a similar situation to backward compatibility although I do expect BC on the PS5 with PS4 considering the architecture, if not then that'll be a very scummy move by Sony.

Dear Sony,

Please don't.

Sincerely, Everybody

I'm up for a slimmer Pro. The Pro is kinda bulky.

Make a slim Pro and make it the base SKU going forward. Turning down the parallel manufacturing lines would pay for bringing this SKU down to the current base model price while slashing prices on the older slim and pro models already in the distribution chain would reap the benefits of market penetration.

Coupling this with the insane graphics to be expected from GT Sport and a glance at TLoU 2 running on the Pro will be more than enough to spear Scorpio in the throat before it ever had a chance. Making the Pro the base model will also entice developers to utilize the Pro modes in game development more. Win/Win for gamers and Sony.

a fucking men scorpio is done before it even comes out sony has won the miid cycle gen

My guess: aimed at undercutting the Scorpio as hard as possible. A very small, sleek, cheap system like the ps2 mini could give it continued legs in the face of a more expensive device with less brand strength until they are ready for the ps5

So surprising it doesn't already include this. How confusing.

I think a PS4 Pro Slim with 4K UHD Blu-ray will launch for $100 less than Scorpio and a month earlier.

I had to wonder why Sony did not make the PS4 thinner when released. It could have saved costs in anyways instead of making a thinner version latter on. A thinner home console as a gimmick?

only things that would tempt be towards a ps4 of any sort will be if GT Sport isnt a crapshoot and FF7 remake.

Nier Automata & Shenmue III both on PC :D

They should also cram in all the circuity of the PSVR external box.

The core processing hardware should not be any different than what is in the PS4 Pro.

Forgo any further upgrades until PS5 in 2020.

It indicates AMD is improving their chip design's TDP behavior e.g. RX-580 replaces RX-480 while RX-570 replaces RX-470 and these are Polaris 10 to Polaris 20 refinements.

Improved TDP and yields enables AMD to increase RX-480's 5.8 TFLOPS to RX-580's 6.17 TFLOPS while RX-470's 4.9 TFLOPS to RX-570's 5.?? TFLOPS.

Improved TDP and yields can enable Sony to reduce PS4 Pro's cooling solution cost while keeping the same performance profile.

It doesn't match Vega's 4X perf/watt, but it's an improvement over Polaris 2.5X perf/watt.

Notice PS4 NEO Option B has 5.5 TFLOPS and the worst case working chip yield RX-570 has 5.?? TFLOPS range around April 2017 time period.

For Scorpio's 6 TFLOPS FP32 target, it would need Vega's 4X perf/watt improvements for worst case working chip yield.

I'm fine with my sweet sweet Pro. It's still like half the size the original Xbox and the launch Xbone, not to mention some nauseatingly huge desktop. If they make some slim version great. But it ain't gonna have no UHD player. What for? I haven't bought a bluray in like 10 years. Most people haven't. Funny how Lemmings are acting like UHD is a must have now. Pffff. Last gen they couldn't tell the difference between DVD and bluray. Either way the PS4/Pro/slim is gonna duke the living shit out of Scorpio whatever sku you choose.

Not in performance since PS4 Pro's GPU design is missing major Vega's effective memory bandwidth related improvements.

@ronvalencia:

Oh wow you you sure you don't want to include some graph you ripped off Toms Hardware? The differences will be negligible. Even less noticeable the PS4 and Xbone. What will be noticeable is a PS4 lineup that abuses Xbone/Scorpio at a much more attractive price point.

i believe it.

Sony knows they f*cked up by not adding a UHD player in their Pro and Slim models so they're going to correct their mistake by adding it in this latest model.

The difference is like slightly weaker than RX-470D 4.5 TFLOPS 4 GB with 228 GB/s effective memory bandwidth against HIS R9-390X OC 8 GB to 6 TFLOPS with 311 GB/s effective memory bandwidth.

PS4 Pro's games has 5.5 GB of memory storage while Scorpio's 12 GB memory storage which could allocate 9 GB to games.

Scorpio's higher memory storage enables it to follow PC's higher quality texture sets.

The difference is not negligible.

--------

If Scorpio has Vega's tile cache rendering feature, that's NVIDIA's Maxwell/Pascal major performance booster, hence Vega 11 at 6 TFLOPS is similar to Maxwell with 6 TFLOPS e.g. just under GTX 980 Ti.

Good let's just hope it's not like the PS3 super slim.

It make sense now why they rushed the hell outta of the Pro and released it just right after they release a brand new Slim, so now they have time to release yet another new PS4. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a thinner PS4 Pro which is just smoke and mirrors to try to take the attention away from the most powerful console Scorpio. And also I wouldn't be surprised if it's a more powerful PS4 Pro Ultra which adds UHD drive and could compete with the raw power of the Scorpio. The Scorpio really got Sony shook and now they're scrambling to try to find an answer to the most powerful console.

The problem with current RX-480 is memory bandwidth issue which bounds 5.8 TFLOPS power. R9-390X still has 4K advantage over RX-480. High TFLOPS will be wasted without fixing the memory bandwidth issue.

Sony is just following AMD's road map i.e. Sony is not scrambling.

Polaris gen 1 TDP behavior = PS4 Pro, PS4 NEO Option A matches up with RX-470D.

Polaris gen 2 TDP behavior = PS4 Pro 2, Incidentally, PS4 NEO Option B matches up with RX-570. Atm, the article states slimmer PS4 Pro hence NEO Option B wouldn't be selected..

Vega TDP behavior = Scorpio

Apple's main reason to switch towards Intel CPUs are mostly due to Intel's superior road map over IBM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple's_transition_to_Intel_processors

Reasons

Steve Jobs talks about the transition to Intel

Steve Jobs stated that Apple's primary motivation for the transition was their disappointment with the progress of IBM's development of PowerPC technology, and their greater faith in Intel to meet Apple's needs. In particular, he cited the performance per watt projections in the roadmap provided by Intel.^[12]This is an especially important consideration in laptop design, which affects the hours of use per battery charge.

Road maps are important for hardware OEMs.

Both AMD and Intel battles via road map PR..

As always, cows getting ripped off.

Even though I hardly buy movies anymore I will be a little upset if a slim pro came with a 4k blu ray player. Would love to see Rouge One in 4k on my tv.

I still get the feeling they won't do that, my conspiracy theory is that Samsung didn't want Sony to include 4k blu ray in the PS4, so people would buy stand alone players. (Remember Samsung has allowed PS Now on their TV's)

so they will burn all the slim and pro buyers?

ouch.

If they had a 4k UHD player then I may be tempted to finally pick one up.

i was fine with the slim and the pro but i would hate to see sony do this. and i seriously doubt they will seeing as it hasn't even been a year since the pro/slim launched.

I'd buy that sum'bitch

Can it be uglier than the original Slim? Only time will tell.

I can handle a mid gen revision, but two or more revisions in one gen? Come on MAN!!

I think I'd be okay with this.

What I'd really like to see is a firmware update that makes the bluray drive UHD compatible.

Reasonably positive you need a special lens for that

Oh...well that sucks

Jumping on PC (hardware) bandwagon = constant hardware evolution. The main reason why Apple jumped from IBM to Intel.

Apple evaluated AMD's Llano APU for their MacBook and finds out AMD can't meet Apple's supply requirements.

Anyway, slimmer PS4 Pro and PS4 indicates energy reduction option instead of using extra TDP headroom for increase compute power option.

21,230 of your posts in a single clip.

So, Sony is doing what they have done every with every single console they have ever made going all the way back to original Playstation - rapidly cost reduce and shrink their parts and release new smaller and cheaper.

But, hey!, let's throw out random theories and technobabble about this 'surprising' move by Sony with the PS4!

You are forgetting the main reason for why Sony selected AMD ahead of IBM i.e. improvements with IP blocks gets done regardless of Sony.

Sony claimed there's no upgrade for CELL i.e. it's a dead end architecture with IBM abandoning CELL.

Great move, business wise. Be able fo show some kind of hardware this E3 even if it's just slim form.

Right, the PS3 Slim does not exist...

-facepalm-